What is the state of health services research in New Zealand?

The article reflects on the current state of health services research (HSR) in New Zealand. A recent HSR conference held in Auckland highlighted a number of issues regarding the practice of HSR, suggesting that while there is some good research currently being conducted on issues pertaining to access, quality and costs of health services, more needs to be done. There is limited capacity in the public sector to conduct this work but barriers exist to commissioning academic and private researchers. Academic and private researchers have additional capacity, but often face constraints in producing policy-relevant research. We discuss ways that we might better coordinate and conduct HSR in the future.